Mausoleo delle Fosse Ardeatine

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  • Address
    Via Ardeatina 174, Appio Latino
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  • Phone
    06 513 67 42
  • Transport
    bus: Via Appia Antica

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Buried here, outside the Ardeatine Caves, are 335 Italians shot by the Nazis on 24 March 1944. The prisoners, chosen at random, were killed in reprisal for a partisan attack. Following the massacre, the Germans used mines to explode sections of the caves and bury the bodies. After the war, the bodies were exhumed, identified and reburied in a mass grave at the site, now marked by a huge concrete slab and sculptures.

The German SS commander, Erich Priebke, who has admitted to killing at least two of the victims himself, was tried and convicted to life imprisonment in 1996. He is currently serving the sentence under house arrest in Rome.

At the site there is also a tiny museum dedicated to the Italian resistance to the German occupation.